Stock image of typewriter. / Getty Images/iStockphoto

by Jolie Lee, USA TODAY Network

by Jolie Lee, USA TODAY Network

The German government will continue to use encrypted e-mails and phones, but it could also expand its use of typewriters, said Patrick Sensburg, the head of the German parliament's investigation into U.S. spying, in an interview with German TV station ARD Monday, Reuters reports.

The Germans are even considering using non-electronic typewriters, Sensburg said.

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Last year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel objected to U.S. National Security Agency surveillance in Germany, including her own cellphone.

To add to German distrust of the United States, a man who reportedly worked for Germany's intelligence agency was arrested this month for allegedly selling documents to the United States.

Germany would not be the first country to turn to less sophisticated technology in countersurveillance efforts. . Last year, Russia's Federal Guard Service decided to use more typewriters and paper documents after Edward Snowden's leaks of classified NSA documents.

At the time, Nikolai Kovalev, the former head of the Federal Security Service, told Russian newspaper Izvestia, "Any information can be taken from computers. ... So from the point of view of keeping secrets, the most primitive method is preferred: a human hand with a pen or a typewriter."